The United Kingdom Census 2001 showed a total resident population for Leicester of 279,921, a 0.5% decrease from the 1991 census.[2] Approximately 62,000 were aged under 16, 199,000 were aged 16–74, and 19,000 aged 75 and over.[2] 76.9% of Leicester's population claim they have been born in the UK, according to the 2001 UK Census. Mid-year estimates for 2006 indicate that the population of the City of Leicester stood at 289,700 making Leicester the most populous city in East Midlands.[3]

The population density is 3,814/km2 (9,880/sq mi)[4] and for every 100 females, there were 92.9 males. Of those aged 16–74 in Leicester, 38.5% had no academic qualifications, significantly higher than 28.9% in all of England.[5] 23.0% of Leicester's residents were born outside of the United Kingdom, more than double than the English average of 9.2%.[6]

Economy[edit]

Engineering[edit]

Engineering has long been an important part of the economy of Leicestershire. John Taylor Bellfounders continues a history of bellfounding in Loughborough since the 14th century. In 1881 John Taylors cast the largest bell in Britain, "Great Paul", for St Paul's Cathedral in London. Norman & Underwood have been making sand cast sheet lead roofing and stained glass since 1825 working on many of England's major cathedrals and historic buildings, including Salisbury Cathedral, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, Hampton Court Palace, and Chatsworth House. Snibston Discovery Park is built on one of three coal mines that operated in Coalville from the 1820s until 1986. Abbey Pumping Station houses four enormous steam powered beam engines built in Leicester in the 1890s in the Vulcan factory owned by Josiah Gimson, whose son Ernest Gimson was an influential furniture designer and architect of the English arts and crafts movement.

Trade associations[edit]

There are several trade associations with their head offices based in Leicestershire including the Ergonomics Society, the European Construction Institute, the Institute of Diagnostic Engineers, the Pre-cast Flooring Federation, the Concrete Pipe Association, the Timber Packaging & Pallet Confederation, and the National Association of Wood Shaving & Sawdust Merchants & Contractors.

In 2006 in Leicestershire and Rutland there were 6,450 people working as farmers, managers and farm labourers on 2,719 farms with 192,181 acres (777.73 km2) of farmed land. The animal population was 122,284 cattle, 57,059 pigs and 314,214 sheep Source DEFRA.

The Leicestershire County Show is held on the first Bank Holiday in May each year and includes animal showings, trade exhibitions, and show jumping. Melton Mowbray Market is an important regional livestock market.

Field Sports remain an important part of the rural economy of Leicestershire, with stables, kennels, and gunsmiths based in the county.

Thatched roofs are built and maintained by members of Rutland & Leicestershire Master Thatchers Association.

Food and drink[edit]

Leicestershire food producers include Claybrooke mill one of the very few commercially working watermills left in Britain producing a range of over 40 flours, meat from rare and minority breeds from Brockleby's, Christmas turkey and goose from Seldom Seen Farm. Two dairies produce Red Leicester cheese in the county, Long Clawson and the Leicestershire Handmade Cheese Company.

All natural non-alcoholic fruit cordials and presse drinks are made by Belvoir Fruit Farms and sold in supermarkets across Britain. Swithland Spring Water is sourced from the Charnwood hills. Breweries in Leicestershire and Rutland are listed on the Leicester CAMRA website.[7] The county's largest beer brewer is Everards, and there are several microbreweries such as Belvoir Brewery in Old Dalby, Parish Brewery in Burrough on the Hill, Wicked Hathern Brewery in Loughborough, the Gas Dog Brewery at Somerby near Melton, Ellis Wood brewery in Hinckley, and the Pig Pub Brewery in Claybrooke Magna near Lutterworth. Vineyards in Leicestershire include Chevelswarde Vineyard (Lutterworth), Welland Valley Vineyard (Market Harborough), and Eglantine (Loughborough). Melton Mowbray Sloe Gin is a liqueur with a distinctive flavour.

Various markets are held across the county. Leicester Market is the largest outdoor covered marketplace in Europe and among the products on sale are fruit and vegetables sold by market stallholders, and fresh fish and meat in the Indoor Market.

The annual East Midlands Food & Drink Festival held in Melton Mowbray had over 200 exhibitors and 20,000 visitors attending in 2007 making it the largest British regional food festival.[8]

Food processing in the city and county includes popular British fish and chip shop pie Pukka Pies who are based in Syston. Walkers Midshire Foods, part of the Samworth Brothers group, makes sausages and pies in its Beaumont Leys factories. Samworth Brothers has operations in Leicestershire and Cornwall (Ginsters), making a range of products from sandwiches to desserts for UK retailers under their brands as well the company's own portfolio of brands including Dickinson & Morris, producers of pork pies and Melton Hunt Cake. Walkers crisps are made in Beaumont Leys using Lincolnshire potatoes. United Biscuits have their distribution centre in Ashby-de-la-Zouch as well as a snacks factory producing brands such as Hula Hoops, Skips (snack), Nik Naks and Space Raiders and they also have a biscuit factory in Wigston. The Masterfoods UK factory at Melton Mowbray produces petfood for brands such as Cesar, Kitekat, PAL, Pedigree, Sheba, Whiskas, Aquarian and Trill. Hand made chocolates are produced by Chocolate Perfection in Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

Some 15 major Indian food manufacturers are based in Leicester including Sara Foods, Mayur Foods, Cofresh Snack Foods Ltd, Farsan, Apni Roti, and Spice n Tice. The 'Mithai' Indian sweet market is catered for by award winning Indian restaurants – for instance the vegetable samosas approved by the Vegetarian Society sold at The Sharmilee on Belgrave Road. The growing market for Indian food has afforded new opportunities to long standing local companies, for example the Long Clawson dairy, a co-operative manufacturer of Stilton (cheese) now also makes Paneer cheese used in the Indian dish Mattar Paneer.

Leicestershire food exported abroad includes cheese from the Long Clawson dairy which is sold in supermarkets in Canada and the United States via a network of distributors coordinated by Taunton based company Somerdale. Belvoir Fruit Farms cordials and pressé drinks are sold on the United States east coast in Wegmans Food Markets, World Market, Harris Teeter, Dean & DeLuca, and in specialised British food stores such as Myers of Keswick (New York City), and the British Pantry (near Washington, D.C.).

The annual Leicestershire & Rutland Restaurant Awards has several categories including Leicestershire & Rutland Restaurant of the Year, Best Asian Restaurant, Best Service, Best Newcomer, Best Fine Dining Restaurant, Best Value for Money, Best Drinks/Wine List, Best Local Produce Menu, Best Gastro Pub, Best Neighbourhood Restaurant, Best Business Lunch, and Leicestershire & Rutland Young Chef of the Year.

Clothing[edit]

Leicester and Leicestershire has had a traditional industry of knitwear, hosiery and footwear, and the sheep on the county's coat of arms is recognition of this. The rich history of the East Midlands knitting/knitwear industry is chronicled on the Knitting Together website. The local manufacturing industry, which began with hand knitting in the Middle Ages, and was fully industrialised by the end of the 19th century, survived until the end of the 20th century through retailers buying UK sourced products, and government measures such as the protection of the Multi Fibre Arrangement which ended in 2004. Cheaper global competition, coupled with the 1999 slump in the UK fashion retail sector, led to the end of much of the cheaper clothing manufacturing industry. Today Leicestershire companies focus on high quality clothing and speciality textiles. One such company is Pantherella who make socks at their Hallaton Street factory off Saffron Lane which are sold in high-end department stores around the world including in the UK Harrods, Selfridges, and John Lewis, and in the US in Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman, and Neiman Marcus. Other local companies manufacture knitwear such as Commando Knitwear of Wigston, and others specialise in technical textiles for industrial or medical purposes. Clothing and fabric for the British Asian community is made here - for example the shop Saree Mandir sells silk saree's and salwar suits for women whose design patterns closely follow contemporary Indian trends. The Knitting Industries' Federation continues to be based in Leicestershire. On the creative side the design centre for Next (clothing) is in Enderby, and the design centre for George Clothing (Asda/Walmart) is in Lutterworth. De Montfort University has, in the form of its Fashion and Contour Design course a leading design department for female underwear. It also has the only UK University courses in Footwear Design providing future designers for local shoemakers Shoefayre, Stead and Simpson, and Shoe Zone, who all have their headquarters in the county.

Healthcare[edit]

University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust [9] employs around 11,000 at its three hospitals in the city and county, the Glenfield, the General and the Royal Infirmary. Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust employs around 5,600 staff providing mental health, learning disability and community health services in the city and county. These services are commissioned by the three newly established Clinical Commissioning Groups, led by local GP's. The British Psychological Society, the Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH) based in Wigston, and the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) have their head offices in Leicestershire.

Biomedical industries[edit]

Pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical instrument manufacturing companies include 3M, Bridgehead International in Melton, Fisher Scientific in Loughborough, and Ashfield Healthcare in Ashby de-la-Zouch.

Freight and distribution[edit]

Transportation links are good. East Midlands Airport is one mile (1.6 km) south of Castle Donington, next to the M1 in north-west Leicestershire, and is the second largest freight airport in the United Kingdom after London Heathrow. DHL Aviation have a large purpose built facility at EMA, and courier companies UPS and TNT also use the airport as a base. Lufthansa Cargo is also a regular user of East Midlands, and the airport is a primary hub for Royal Mail. The M1 is Leicestershire's other important transport hub. The start of the M6, and part of the A14 briefly intersect with the southern tip of Leicestershire. Many large retail companies have huge warehouses at the Magna Park complex near Lutterworth. The Widdowson Group make use of J21a of the M1 to provide warehousing, transportation, freight forwarding, garage services and LGV/HGV training. Pall-Ex of Ellistown provide automated palletised freight distribution services from their location off Junction 22 of the M1. The Midland Main Line provides important connections to Yorkshire and London, and the Birmingham–Stansted Line is essentially Leicestershire's east–west connection from Hinckley to Melton.

Other[edit]

Ibstock based developer Wilson Bowden was bought in 2007 by Barratt Developments plc in a GBP2.2 billion deal. Charles Street Buildings (Leicester) and Jelson Homes are two other successful Leicester based property companies.

Syston based Dunelm Mill is a growing home furnishings retailer. The company started in 1979 as a family business selling curtains from a Leicester market stall whose first store opened in Churchgate Leicester in 1984. In 2006 Dunelm opened its 80th store, and the company floated on the stock market, placing the company's founders the Adderley family among Britain's most successful entrepreneurs.

Hamilton based Sofidel Group manufactures more than 600 million toilet rolls and kitchen towel rolls per year in its Leicestershire factories.

Toy car company Corgi have their European operation at the Meridian Business Park, although the toys are now manufactured in China and the company is owned by Margate based Hornby.

Hairdresser Barrie Hedley operates three Barrie Stephen salons in the city and county, and has been a finalist in the British hairdressing awards 2004, 2005, and 2006. In 2007 Hedley won the Entrepreneur of the year at the Leicestershire Business Awards.

Lumbers, of Market Street Leicester, was a finalist in the Independent Retailer category of the UK Jewellery Awards 2007.

Ulverscroft Large Print Books, of Anstey, Leicestershire, are a leading publisher of books for the visually impaired.

Leicester's Cultural Quarter is an ambitious plan to drive the regeneration of a large run-down area of the City. It has delivered: A new venue for the performing arts, Curve; Creative workspaces for artists & designers, LCB Depot; and a Digital Media Centre. A huge number of Creative and Media businesses have thrived in the region such as the digital agency, Cite [1]. In addition the area now has much-improved streets, pavements and open spaces with integrated artworks.

Business awards[edit]

The Leicestershire Business Awards has categories including Investing in Leicestershire, Contribution to the Community, and Entrepreneur of the Year.

Recent Leicestershire winners of the Queen's Award for Enterprise are listed on the Lord Lieutenant's website.

Statistics[edit]

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire and Rutland (it does not include the City of Leicester) at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year

Regional Gross Value Added - Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

Local government[edit]

County Hall, situated in Glenfield, about 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Leicester city centre, is the seat of Leicestershire County Council and the headquarters of the county authority. The City of Leicester is administered from offices in Leicester itself and the City Council meets at Leicester Town Hall. Below the County Council, seven district councils for a second tier of local government.

Education[edit]

Publicly funded secondary schools in Leicestershire are comprehensive. The schools are segregated by age in some areas to ages 10–14 (middle schools), and 14–16 (upper schools) or 14–18 (upper schools which also provide sixth form education). The schools, compared with other LEAs, have large numbers on the roll with school enrolment often 2000 and more. For Melton and Blaby districts, although there is division by middle and upper schools, there is only one upper school in either district, giving no choice of school. However, it should be noted that many students of Lutterworth College in Harborough District actually hail from Blaby district.

Charnwood has the largest school population – four times the size of the Melton district. In 2007, the best-performing state school at GCSE was Beauchamp College in Oadby. No comprehensives in Leicestershire LEA were rated as poor performers, unlike in some neighbouring counties. In 2007, 7,800 pupils took GCSE exams.

Higher education[edit]

Educational associations[edit]

Several educational associations have their head offices in Leicestershire, including the Mathematical Association, the Association of School and College Leaders, the Association for College Management, the Girls Schools Association, the National Adult School Association, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education and the Headmasters & Headmistresses Conference.

Sporting associations[edit]

A number of UK sporting bodies have their head offices in Leicestershire, including the Institute of Sports & Recreation Management, the Institute of Swimming Teachers & Coaches, the English Volleyball Association, the Great Britain Wheelchair Basketball Association, the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, the British Judo Association, the British Parachute Association, the British Triathlon Federation, the Amateur Swimming Association, the British Gliding Association, the British Motorcycle Federation, the English Indoor Bowls Association, the Youth Sports Trust and the British Isles Bowls Council.

Music[edit]

The full range of music is performed in the county, from early medieval, European and Asian classical music, folk, jazz, blues, rock, and pop. The major Download Festival, a hard rock and metal festival, is hosted at Donington Park.